ANST - period playground equipment?

[Brent Hanner]

Jane Sitton-Logan/James D. Logan wrote:
> 
> Bonjour from Madelina de Lindesaye.
> 
> My daughter (who will be 7 on Bastille Day) asked me last night if
> swings and slides are period.  Does anyone know where I would even
> start researching this?  

Start looking at lots of period artwork.  Look in books that cover
daily life in the middle ages.  The Gies books are a great place
to start.  They have a nack for finding good pictures to represent
stuff.

> I'm sure swings of a sort have been around
> since the first caveman grabbed a vine and swung across a ravine,
> creek, river, or the like.  But what about something built on
> purpose, rope with a wooden seat, for example?

I have infront of me a picture of a swing that I'm guessing is
from the mid-14th century.  It doesn't appear to have a seat, more
like just a rope loop.
 
> A swing is probably much older than a slide, though.  But wouldn't a
> slide have come about from careful observation of something like
> using a trough of some sort to fill a sack with grain, for
> instance?  Or the simple act of accidentally sliding down a hill?

I would think that sliding down a hill has been done for quite a while
but a slide is quite a bit different.  As to wether they existed in 
period or not I'm not gonna try and guess.  Most modern slides
are metal or plastic and while I supose the first one could have been 
done in period I'm not sure that it would have been.
 
> I think it would be really fun to be able to have some sort of
> period playground equipment at, say, Springfaire (along with maybe a
> Maypole).  But where do I even start looking?  Has anyone researched
> this?  Any ideas?

Its a neat idea.  And I'll keep my eyes open for things.  Also look
at playground equipment and think about how obvious it is that its
a play piece.  One that comes to mind is the See-saw(teeter-totters)
very basic and simple and a child could actually make it if they didn't
have
one made.  Look for others like that,  you may not be able to document
it but they are almost so obvious that it could have easily been done.  
Kinda like the swing.

Peder
-- 
"This I heard the wise men say: none can be happy, none can stay
 content in this world but he  who loves and with such loyalty
 a noble woman that he'd die  if it would save her from a sigh.
 For thus all men have loved who gain  the honor others can't obtain."

Service of Ladies by Ulrich von Lichtenstien
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